Joe's TV List Gets a Speeding Ticket

#32: Late Night with David Letterman
and The Late Show with David Letterman
(NBC, 1982-1993; CBS, 1993-present)

David Letterman probably realized the power he wields long before Meg Parsont's birthday in 1992, when he had a Manhattan street closed off so that a marching band could spell out her name below her window at Simon & Schuster. His move to CBS the following year effectively spelled the end of his cheerful intrusions on Meg's life. But a new location offered new friends, like Mujibur & Sirajul and Rupert Gee, and Dave just kept on cementing his place as our generation's Steve Allen, mixing irony, self-deprecation, and man-on-the-street charm for what is now more than a quarter-century. Of course, Allen never donned a velcro suit and threw himself against a wall or had himself dunked in a tank of water wearing thousands of Alka-Seltzer tablets, to name just two of Dave's early stunts, not to mention the venerable Top 10 Lists, Stupid Pet Tricks, or live feeds to Mom. He may be the most unpredictable of late-night interviewers -- I mean, Leno typically doesn't get cursed out or flashed (as Letterman did by Cher and Drew Barrymore, respectively) -- but Dave balances the smarm with genuine feeling (the post-9/11 show, the return from heart surgery). I don't stay up late enough to watch him anymore, but hopefully a new generation of college students is tuning in. Even if it's just to see what Dave throws off his roof next.